Thanks to a partnership with entertainment site The A.V. Club, Basil Hayden’s is putting me on the road to mix it up with fans of our bourbon and fans of their site. We call this tour “This is My….” Starting in Denver, we’ll be traveling to several cities across the country to document a collection of people in each city doing interesting things centered around a theme. Our theme for Denver was après ski, that time when you ditch your gear and curl up with some good food, good friends, a good movie, and a good cocktail (or two). Special thanks to Williams & Graham’s Chad Michael George for crafting the Red on the Rocks cocktail and to Winter Session’sTanya Fleisher and Roy Katz for sharing their story and their space for our first event.

Starting in on a story about Chris Olberding is like walking into a corn maze and immediately hitting walls on three sides. Lost amid the seven foot stalks, I find myself in this field of dreams as I share a bit about the man who was my mentor for the last year of my twenties.[Read more…]

I love this time of year. Halloween kicks off a three month party of turkey and ham and beer and wassail and cheese and season-specific desserts aplenty. Oh, and pumpkin-spiced everything.

I first learned of the artist and designer Steven Harrington through his work with Jou-Yie Chou and the good folks at the Ace Hotel. His work feels at once a throwback to the surf and ski t-shirts I grew up with, and completely of its time. Timeless. Playful. And yet, somehow, contemplative. So you can imagine my excitement to see that he’d teamed up with The Times (short for “these are the times”), a relatively young, LA-based shop that was founded on the idea that life is all about the present moment, and much like myself, they draw inspiration from athletics and life out of doors.

The collection includes my favorite, the white pocket “Everyday Is Halloween” tee, the Black Magic tee, Steve’s sinister October mix tape, a few Halloween treats and a special 6″ x 8″ signed photo print. Orders placed before Halloween will ship on the same day. The shirts are a super soft, 100% GMO-free organic cotton tee proudly made in California. Four-color graphic printed with water-based ink. Oh, and they three in some endlessly spooky vibes to really kick things off.

From The Times themselves, “Each October we get together with the crew for potlucks, spirits, spooky walks and scary movies. It has been a tradition for years and has become a time of year we look forward to year-round. The Times Black Magic Collection is an attempt to share some of the fun with a larger audience. We at The Times have a very close relationship with artist Steven Harrington and knowing Halloween is his favorite time of year as well we decided the capsule was in order.”

All orders come with a download link to Steve’s “Black Magic” October mix tape, featuring some deadly Halloween faves.

Be sure to visit The Times shop to check out this ghoulish collection before it’s too late.

I was heading to San Antonio. I’d asked for recommendations of things to check out from an old college friend who, until literally a week before I was to arrive, had been living there for the last several years. Knowing how much I appreciate a well-made shirt, her first suggestion was that I look into The Richter Co., an upstart clothing company begun by my new friend Mario Guajardo.

What’s most remarkable about Mario’s shirts is that they are made entirely by him and one other person in a small storefront space in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood just North of the center of downtown.

Take time to check out their newly launched website, and look for more on my visit to San Antonio, coming soon to Whiskey… Among Other Things.

However, until earlier this year, I’d never been afforded the opportunity to visit Shea and brother Raan’s shop on Traction Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. Thankfully, the good folks at Basil Hayden’s provided just such an opportunity, and it was great to see Raan and catch up on all things Apolis. Head over to Whiskey…. Among Other Thingsfor more of my visit.

One Trip Pass‘ Jay Carroll — the King of the Road Trip — has created a series of videos centered on the work he’s done for Levi’s, traveling and buying up some of his favorite things to be sold in their stores. If dreams were realities, Jay would continue to travel and document these terrific people and their lives’ work forever.

“I could buy a house here and rent in the city and remain perfectly happy, at least for the next little while.”

I’m quick to call it a movement. Though it’s not quite that, there is something happening among Chicagoans my age (31). Let’s call it “talk.” Anyone who has been to Southwestern Michigan — specifically, New Buffalo, Sawyer, and Three Oaks — has had this lightbulb moment at some point during their sojourns due North and East of our fair city.

That thing your mom gave you, that thing you took to summer camp with you, that thing your brother stole from you, that thing you found hiding behind a pile of rubber Smurfs and plastic wind-up jumping frog figurines underneath the bathroom sink which you shared with your brother, that thing you dusted off and carried with you to college, that thing you stuffed in a backpack when you lived on trains in England and Ireland for a year, that thing you took to your first apartment in New York, that thing that always came with you when you left town, that thing your girlfriend laughed at because it looks like it came out of a Caboodle, that thing you called on when you just needed a place to put your toothbrush and a stick of deodorant, that thing which saw you through that really tough time when you were barely making ends meet and your Caboodle-loving girlfriend had dumped you, that thing that was there for you in good times, too, in great times like that week-long camping trip you took to the Gunks when you forgot that thing in a port-o-potty but your friends, understanding your inexplicable connection to that thing turned around and drove the hour back so that you could retrieve that thing, that thing, that favorite thing of yours which broke or tore or somehow failed you in a critical moment, for the final time and though you’d rigged it, repaired it, duct-taped it, done everything you could to it, you finally determined it’s time to say “goodbye” to that thing.